Shelley Manzo
"But I think our history has to count for something." -Shelley Manzo, Spinning Heartstrings Michelle "Shelley" Maria Manzo is the main protagonist of Dripping Mascara. She is a Majinnee (Female Majinn). Born on July 19, 1996, she is 17 at the start of story, in the year 2014. Currently, she is 20 years old, soon to be 21. Shelley is a strong and hard-working individual, having experienced her parents' deaths when she was merely 13 years old. Her two cousins, Bella and Jolie, often called her "Shells," while her father and her Uncle Georgio call her "Principessa," and Matthew, her best friend since childhood and later in the story, one of her main love interests, calls her "Princess." As the story progresses, Shelley realizes is forced to battle the unknown evil forces of the magic she was once shielded from. Early Life Michelle Maria Manzo was born on July 19, 1996 to Sienna and Carlo Manzo. When she was born, her Uncle Georgio, whom Carlo was estranged with, secretly went to see the child when she was born. There, the brothers realized that the child that had been born to Sienna was none other than Queen Genevieve, Mother of the Meadows, one of the most powerful legacies of the Jinn. He saw dark green eyes and blindingly red hair and saw that it was her. Upon figuring this out, Carlo requested that Sienna used a permanent hair dye spell to make her hair red and to change her eye color to green so that Shelley would not suspect anything and no one would notice she would look different from the rest of the family. They decided not to expose Shelley to magic as it was dangerous since Genevieve, throughout her lives, had powerful threats imposed on her. When Shelley was five years old, she was given a baby brother named Stephen, whom she called Steve for short. She loved to play with him as a child and tried to be a second mother to him. In fact, it was during the time when her mother was pregnant with Steve that Shelley developed a desire for children and decided that when she was older, she wanted many of her own as well. As a child, then a tween, she always seemed to have her life planned out. Once, when Shelley was six, she had asked her mother about marriage and couples and babies. Sienna always said she was, "Six going on twenty-six." Shelley also developed a taste for books and movies, which began to romanticize her every encounter with a boy she had. She always dreamed about meeting "The One." When Shelley was nine years old, she was introduced to Matthew, the son of Caesare and Teresa Ruscuiti. They developed a close friendship. Matthew loved to talk to her and play with her younger brother Steve. As Shelley grew older, she started to have feelings toward Matthew, and would often write about him in her diary. She also loved to talk to her mother about him, but was afraid her mother would get upset, so she called him "Emmy" so Sienna would think she was talking about a boy instead, and eventually the nickname stuck. Carlo, however, would have had no problem with this and often joked about Shelley and Matthew getting married someday, which convinced young Shelley that they would after all.